


steady as she goes

by bluebellbygones



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aang centric, Character Study, Minor Violence, the kataang is very mild but its there, theres some abstract gross at one point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:55:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25179559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluebellbygones/pseuds/bluebellbygones
Summary: Aang gives much more than he takes, receives more than he accepts. Many things are taken from him as well, more than anyone should lose. But there are some things he is able to keep.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 64





	steady as she goes

Learning he was the Avatar might have been the worst thing ever that happened to him, even if only for the resulting domino effect.

Gyatso said he shouldn’t have been told before he turned 16, and in retrospect he was probably right. When the monks came into the courtyard asking to speak with him, he felt like he was going to get chewed out for something. Getting scolded would have been far preferable to what actually happened.

The reveal was rather underwhelming, in all honesty, as Aang had real trouble even fathoming it was him. The other people in the Southern Air Temple did not seem to share this sentiment. Suddenly, he was so important, so powerful, so responsible for everything. He needed to be trained, watched, restricted. The other kids wouldn’t play with him anymore, thus he didn’t have much of a reason to go outside, except to feed and care for Appa. All the while Gyatso was fighting for any mote of normalcy, doing things like pulling pranks on the other monks in the council and absolutely destroying him at Pai Sho. Then Gyatso was going to be taken away from him too.

The moment he heard the ultimatum, Aang felt like he couldn’t breathe, for all the control he had over the air. Loneliness, above all else, pressed in hard and merciless, suffocating. He felt like he was being trapped in a small metal box that shrank the more time passed.

It was impulsive and not thought out at all, but his power over his situation was so limited. There was only one thing he really could do with what he had at the time.

Appa had not been happy about being woken in the middle of the night, but seeing his boy weeping and upset made him drop his disgruntlement and go along with whatever he wanted. Aang departed along with his best friend that night without saying a proper goodbye. He didn’t know where he was going to go, what he was going to do, and it was inevitable that he would have to learn the other elements at some point. But he could go at his own pace. No one was there to dictate it for him.

In the meantime, his thoughts meandered to the South Pole, a place he’d never been, even though his temple was fairly close. He knew how people used the penguins there to sled down hills, and how fun it had sounded at the time. He wasn’t entirely sure why this came to mind; maybe he was just looking for a distraction. It was all he had in terms of anything resembling a plan at the time, so he spurred Appa onward towards the South Pole. The young nomad thought maybe it would give him time to come to terms with all the Avatar stuff, and maybe he could even pick up some waterbending there. Waterbending seemed fun and pleasant, at least in theory.

He was so caught up in his thoughts, he failed to notice the black, stormy clouds rolling in low over the ocean, or the way the wind began to pick up. It wasn’t until a crack of lightning sounded that he registered what was going on, but at that point Appa had already been submerged, swallowed by a giant wave, tossing them both into the ocean.

A whisper started in the back of his head, followed by a chorus that threatened to spill out and around him, and a flash of white light was all he managed to register before fading away.

When he woke up, he was above the surface in the open air; a girl from the Water Tribe was hovering over him with equal parts concern and curiosity. She’d probably gotten him out of the ice somehow. Aang couldn’t help but immediately blurt out what was on his mind; she had to know how to penguin sled, right? She lived here, so it only made sense.

She agreed to his request, but seemed incredibly confused, and nothing Aang did afterward did anything to assuage it. She had a brother who was far more suspicious of him, poking him in the stomach with a whale tooth spear and asking questions with an almost angry tone. He also didn’t like Appa very much, since Appa sneezed on him the minute he woke up, but Aang knew he’d warm up eventually. No one disliked Appa for long, in his experience. Nomads usually didn’t come by the South Pole very often, so it wasn’t hard to believe they’d never seen one before. Though the boy then seemed weirdly skeptical that Appa could fly in the first place, which was weird? Everyone had to know sky bison existed, right?

He ignored those thoughts in favor of learning their names (the nice girl was Katara, the distrustful teenager was her brother, Sokka) and gave them his name in turn. They seemed very weirdly disbelieving and shocked that he was an airbender; Sokka scoffed out something about it not making sense and that he must have something called ‘midnight sun madness’. Despite his dismissal, they needed a ride home and Aang was all too happy to have Appa give them a lift.

An airbenders existence being seen as unbelievable was something that didn’t sit well with him. He tried to ignore it.

Katara asked him about what happened to the Avatar. Aang had chosen to lie to her face and she seemed to accept it, which he wasn’t proud of, but it also brought up something even more alarming.

He’d been gone long enough for the Water Tribes to notice his absence. But it didn’t feel like long at all. He was only a recently announced Avatar too; it was weird anywhere but the Southern temple would be missing his presence. Maybe Katara was referring to the Avatar before him, whoever they were.

Yeah. Maybe that was it.

Aang was able to put it out of his mind until the next day where so much happened it was like a whirlwind. Just as he woke up from a nightmare about the storm, Katara dragged him out to meet the small crowd of mostly children, elders and mothers that made up her village. Then her grandmother informed him that everyone thought the Air Nomads were extinct.

“Extinct??” he asked in horror and disbelief. And although Sokka managed to derail his thoughts with his criticisms of his glider- which was for flying, not stabbing, as Aang demonstrated- it still nagged him through the rest of the day. He tried to joke and play with the younger kids to take his mind off it, until he could work up the courage to ask properly, but Sokka furiously reminded him there was a war going on, thus there was no time for games, and what was wrong with him?!

Aang asked him about the war, because what on earth was he talking about, but was immediately distracted by a penguin. It was why he’d come here in the first place, after all.

Katara taught him how to catch a penguin, only after revealing she was the only waterbender in the South Pole and was desperate for a teacher. The young nomad offered to take her to the North Pole so she could be taught proper; after all she’d done for him, how nice she’d been, it only felt right to suggest the possibility. But the despondency in her voice added to his sense of dread that was building since morning.

Why was she the  _ only _ waterbender there?

She went penguin sledding with him, laughing out how she hadn’t done so since she was a kid. She still was a kid; she was only a couple years older than Aang. For some reason, she didn’t see it that way. 

They happened upon a massive, wrought iron ship still flying the tattered remains of a Fire Nation flag. Katara called it ‘a very bad memory’. Aang had to investigate; nothing was making sense anymore. When Katara expressed hesitance at entering the wreckage, he told her she had to let go of her fear, a partial bluff on his part. In truth, he was terrified too. Just, for a different reason.

He’d been gone for 100 years. It was staggering to learn.

Kuzon, Gyatso, Bumi, the council, the other Southern Temple kids... they were probably all gone by now. The Fire Nation had attacked the other nations in his absence, and without the Avatar to stop them and keep balance, they ran rampant, consuming everything in their path.

To Aang, it’d only felt like a few hours, a few days at the most. He couldn’t believe it.

He tried to tell himself that he managed to make a new friend out of it, and that was the bright side to it all, like Katara suggested, but he didn’t know how long that thought would comfort him any.

——

When Aang and Katara returned, Sokka immediately yelled at him for signaling the Fire Navy with a flare. Although it was part of a booby trap, it didn’t change that they wereall in danger. Aang was still having trouble reconciling the Fire Nation he knew, the one Kuzon was from, with an imperial power that laid waste to other countries and colonized them, so he took the situation a bit more lightly than the others did. That attitude was probably what got him exiled from the village.

Katara angrily yelled that she was going with him to the North Pole, but as much as it pleased him to have the girl he’d just become friends with as a travel companion, Sokka pointed out that she was choosing a person she’d just met and barely knew over her own family.

“Katara, I don’t want to come between you and your family.” Aang told her. That seemed to convince her to stay. 

The young nomad thanked her for sledding with him, attempted to make a joke about how messy his room would be after 100 years to cheer her up (it didn’t work) and rode Appa away from the village.

He knew her for less than a day, but he already missed her so dearly.

After seeing the Fire Nation ship on its way to the village, and remembering all the things Katara had claimed about what they’d done, Aang left in a heartbeat. He didn’t want to believe the things he’d heard, but... things were liable to change during the course of 100 years. If these allegations were true, not that Katara had any reason to lie to him, no way was he going to let anyone be endangered because of his mistake.

The army uniforms were different than Aang remembered; the shoulder pads are more streamlined, less points and curves. The colors were the same, so there was no denying their nationality. One of them had all his hair removed, save his topknot, and a massive scar over one eye; both were likely the result of an Agni Kai. Kuzon had always talked about those with a grimace.

But if Katara was to be believed, and the Fire Nation was waging war on the other nations, there was only one reason big enough for them to be in this admittedly dilapidated village with full armor and benders. Only one thing that, in theory, threatened them enough to send out military forces to such a remote part of the world.

“Looking for me?” Aang posed the rhetorical question to the teenager with the scar.

He could own up to his status for something like this, at least.

His battle with the Fire Nation teenager would have gone a lot better if it hadn’t risked the safety of the people there. The aggressors seemed adamant on staying until he’d been defeated and restrained.

Aang decided it would be better to cut to the chase and let himself be taken away.

They really had become a cruel nation in his absence.

Sokka and Katara went after him, giving chase on Appa. They helped him up on to the bison’s back after falling in the water and going into the Avatar state. Katara called the event ‘the most amazing thing she’d ever seen’ before she asked why he didn’t tell them he was the Avatar. 

He never wanted to accept the role forced upon him, and not even by any one person. By the whole world, both worlds, the universe. But now, with the state of the world as it was, it seemed he had no choice but to do take it upon himself.

He answered honestly. “Because... I never wanted to be.”

The siblings claimed they were planning to stay with him for the journey to the North Pole, which lightened the burden immensely. He could now look forward to learning waterbending with someone he thought of as his friend.

Perhaps the role wouldn’t take everything from him after all, as he thought it would.

——

He dreamt of fire that night, of effigies burning, arrows fleeing the skin they were placed upon, wooden flesh turning to ash and being tossed to the wind. It was very... abstract, and the tear tracks on his cheeks that had appeared when he’d awoken didn’t clarify anything at all.

——

Aang was so sure that someone had to be left. The firebenders couldn’t have killed many of them, if they’d managed to kill any at all. Katara didn’t share this opinion, but he was adamant. The only way to get to an air temple was flight, and there was no way the Fire Nation could have gotten up there.

Some would call it hope. Others would call it denial.

He was excited to see show his friends his home, and to be home after 100 years having gone by. The excitement faded after actually setting foot on the temple grounds; everything was so dead and empty, just torn cloth and weeds blowing in the breeze. So much had changed. Too much.

He did, however, finally get to see what was within the temple sanctuary: the Avatar cycle. Statues lined up in a swirling pattern, all facing forward. Aang swore he could almost hear a chorus of voices, singing something wordless, tuneless, reverberating up into the tall stone chamber.

There were so many past lives that he’d lived it was frankly staggering. So much to live up to, yet somehow the idea wasn’t near as intimidating as it should have been. It was even reassuring in a way, knowing just how many times he, in a past life, had managed to keep the balance in the world. It gave him hope that the situation wasn’t impossible to fix.

It wasn’t really the fact that Gyatso is dead that upset him so much; after 100 years it wouldn’t be surprising for him to be dead at that point. It was that he was killed by firebenders. And he’d even violated his own vow of pacifism, by the look of all the fellow skeletons that surrounded his.

Aang fell to his knees and buried his head in his hands.

This was his fault.

He left and the firebenders attacked and Gyatso of all people felt forced to violate his beliefs.

The empty grounds, no lemurs, no monks no bison,

just weeds and remains of the dead

was  _ all his fault. _

His vision went white, and the voices started up again. Uncontrolled, the song better represented a group of howling, vengeful wraiths rather than a harmonious choir.

A single cry brought him back to earth. Someone- a girl- was shouting that she and the person with her were his family. That they’d lost their mother, that they understood how he hurt. They were willing to accept him as one of their own.

They weren’t going to let anything happen to him, the boy with her said. The girl held his hand.

The world came into focus and Aang collapsed in her arms, buried in her parka and held tight.

Katara was right. He really was the last airbender. And everyone- everything was gone.

It wasn’t fair.

Aang added a new member to their newfound family. He stole a peach from Sokka’s hand, so giving him the name ‘Momo’ felt appropriate.

“We’re all that’s left of this place. We have to stick together.” he said to Momo perched on one arm and to Appa, being pet with the other.

Momo sat with him in the back of Appa’s saddle. They both watched the Southern Air temple- their home- gradually vanish into the cloudbank, leaving it behind.

——

Through traveling around the Earth Kingdom on the way to the North Pole, Aang did his best to make up for his absence. Sure, it would have been more practical to hide his identity away and keep his journey secret, seeing as they were constantly being tracked by a very persistent and angry Fire Nation teenager, but to let it go unspoken felt wrong in many ways. He never advertised it (except for that time on Kyoshi island), but he felt keeping his return away from public knowledge was a disservice to those who were fighting and suffering; he was back now, he wanted to help, and he wanted to make sure everyone knew it.

Snags were hit, however. On the day of the summer solstice, after a harrowing day of journeying all the way across the ocean to the Fire Nation, running a blockade, being chased by Zhao, Zuko, and the sages of Roku’s temple, Aang was told he only had until the end of the summer- only several months away- to put an end to the war, otherwise the Firelord would use its power to win it. Stressed was a very tame way of describing how Aang felt.

Since then the journey was so much more rushed; he was forced to give up a lot of the fun plans he’d had for them in favor of learning waterbending. He’d gotten a jumpstart courtesy of Katara stealing a waterbending scroll from a group of pirates and trying to teach him what she could do, for which he was endlessly grateful, but it was far from being fully reassuring. 

And to top it off, his personal failings came back to bite him some weeks later. A fisherman yelled at him for turning his back on the world. It was a chance encounter that shouldn’t have really bothered him, but it did.

A storm rolled in. Aang fled.

Katara found him, his back to her as rain poured down outside the cave. She listened to his story, tried to assure him that he could still make a difference here, now. She grounded him in the present, reminding him he could have easily been killed along with the other airbenders if he had stayed. “I think it was meant to be.” she said quietly, assuredly.

When retrieving Sokka from the storm, an all too familiar scenario presented itself to him under the tumultuous roil of the waves they’d been pushed under. He had resolved to never abandon anything again. The chorus of voices rang wild and clear, and with a snap of Appa’s reins, the Avatar led them all safely out of the water and into the eye, which they stayed above for a while, waiting for the storm to cease.

They had seen Zuko and his crew in the middle of it too. And while they paid him no mind (strangely, he seemed to do the same), Aang couldn’t help but feel it was some sort of omen.

——

Sokka and Katara had become sick only two days after the storm. Aang tried to fetch medicine for them, only to be accosted by incredibly skilled archers, the swampland he needed to traverse to collect the recommended remedy, and a crazy elderly cat lady, not in that order. Who knew that trying to help his friends get well through means unconventional would result in his imprisonment. Restricted by an almost extravagantly decorated restraint, chains stretching out his arms far from his body, like it was meant to put him on display. Even a cage would have felt less demeaning.

The Commander turned Admiral taunted Aang about his loss, asking if he missed them with such poorly disguised sadistic mirth. Then he turned around and said Aang wouldn’t be burned as they were, just barely kept alive, as if Aang would find any comfort in the idea of death here.

If he didn’t have his friends, maybe he would have.

It was lucky for him that an infamous vigilante, wanted by the Fire Nation on several counts of treason, assault, theft and many other felonies, decided to get him out. They didn’t talk, and Aang had to admit they scared him, but they had incredible skill and focus, able to coordinate with him at the drop of a hat.

He had such faith in them, even when they pressed their blades to his neck. He froze, heart pounding furiously in his chest.

_They’re bluffing_. he convinced himself in a whirl of panic. _they’rebluffingthey’rebluffingthey’rebluffingthey’rebluffingthey’rebluffingthey’rebluffing_

He couldn’t die. His friends were waiting for him.

The Blue Spirit was shot square in the forehead by a well placed arrow, and Aang’s world substantially shifted once more. He saw the face of an enemy under the mask now, instead of an ally. But...

But.

He wasn’t sure exactly why he decided to stay and speak with him; he wanted to make sure Zuko was alright when he woke up, but he found himself talking about Kuzon, someone he hadn’t even told Katara or Sokka about yet.

Kuzon was from the Fire Nation. 100 years ago, the Fire Nation was a perfectly good- if stuffy and strict- place, with good people, good intent, and surprisingly silly sounding slang that Aang loved to death. Kuzon once had a fiery hot temper, a persistent streak a mile wide, and knack for using stealth to cause trouble. A lot, it seemed, like Zuko.

“If we knew each other back then,” Aang found himself asking the Fire Nation prince. “do you think we could’ve been friends too?”

Zuko responded by blasting fire at him. Aang dodged with ease and took it as his cue to leave, weaving through the trees and headed back to the valley swamp. Zuko didn’t give chase.

Perhaps he walked out on him a little too easily there, but he couldn’t stay there forever. He was forced to give up whatever chance he had.

He returned with the recommended cure and ‘administered’ it; he’d be loathe to not return with the thing that made him get into all that trouble in the first place. Sokka, through his delirium, asked if Aang made any new friends while he was away.

“No.” Aang murmured sorrowfully. “I don’t think I did.”

——

The rest of the journey was a blur, for the most part, with certain things that stuck out prominently; one was the meeting with Bato. It had hurt, being rejected by his friends- his family- and the others, but it wasn’t as though he hadn’t brought it on himself. He was so scared of losing anything else.

In the end, Katara and Sokka stayed with him, something he was endlessly grateful for. The least he could do was make it up to them somehow; it was lucky he’d managed to snag Katara’s necklace in the middle of the fight. He’d gotten to keep their companionship; he made himself swear not to mess it up again.

He tried to learn firebending and ended up burning Katara’s hands. Just because she was able to heal herself didn’t mean it was alright. He gave up firebending in a heartbeat.

Another instance that stood out was the visit to the Northern Air temple; lured by the idea that other airbenders still lived, Aang went there as quickly as he could possibly manage. Upon reaching the temple, he was thoroughly disappointed. Not only were they not airbenders, but they’d ruined the temple as well. Murals were marred, statues destroyed, the once clean air was filled with puffs of charcoal. The temple sanctuary was used to store Fire Nation weapons. But as much as it hurts, he negotiated with himself, changes would have happened to the temple even if the refugees hadn’t “remodeled”, and at the very least, people like Teo would have had spirit enough to be an airbender.

The memories of his culture lived on not within murals or monuments, but in the air. The swirling winds that allowed people like Teo and Katara glide through the air by the merit of their own spirit. It was something he, more than anything else, would represent and carry across the world. At least, that’s how he reasoned it.

He hoped those thoughts would carry him through all that was to come.

It helped that the Mechanist showed him drafts of new ideas that were unobtrusive and would better coincide with the temple as it was.

——

Sometimes Aang would rub at the tattoos on the back of his hands to make sure they weren’t peeling off of his skin.

——

Learning waterbending was the first benchmark in his journey. He’d learned some with Katara, but he knew they’d both have to be taught by a master eventually. At least until he refused her.

Aang, in a burst of righteous anger, nearly walked out on lessons from Master Pakku entirely, but Katara, of all people, dissuaded him. He couldn’t give it up for her. He really wanted to, but he relented.

It didn’t matter in the end anyway, because after being caught learning from Aang, Katara had dueled Master Pakku, done exceedingly well for someone of novice level, and essentially guilted him into teaching her as well. Not that anyone cried about it; he had it coming.

——

The Fire Nation laying siege upon the North took, or tried to take, many things from them. Aang nearly lost his face to Koh, and he’d felt the incredible despair and wrath of the ocean spirit at the loss of its partner as they demolished the Fire Navy, wading through a still, black sea. Feeling the emotions of another was incredibly intense, and the emotions of a spirit no less.

Katara nearly lost Aang. If they hadn’t found Zuko in the blizzard, one way or another Aang would have been taken from her. She’d nearly lost her waterbending as well, something she valued above almost all other traits she possessed, as a last tie to her heritage. Not to mention that the entire sister tribe she learned from would have suffered the same fate.

Sokka lost Yue. His loss was the one that hit hardest; they could all see he adored her and wanted her to be safe. But she had to surrender the life she was given. If she hadn’t, the situation would have been irreparable. Sokka clearly knew this, and that was likely why his loss hurt all the more.

And although they didn’t really know it, they’d all lost a bit of their innocence. For Aang, a child untempered by the fires of war, the impact felt like a scorch.

Sokka always stayed up a little later than the rest of the group from then on, to gaze up at the moon for a short while before going to sleep.

——

Aang gained a fear of the Avatar state. 

In his dreams after the siege of the North, he watched himself hurt people without even blinking, his eyes and tattoos aglow in the rage. The lack of control scared him more than anything. 

So when General Fong of the Earth Kingdom military said he could defeat the Firelord by going into the Avatar state, he was initially shocked and incredibly hesitant. He had no control over it and it could really get people hurt if something went wrong. But it was so powerful, he wanted to help people with it, like the General wanted him to. And with the day of Sozin’s comet slowly creeping up on them, the day Ba Sing Se and the Earth Kingdom was sure to fall, Aang decided it was the best way to go about things.

Katara disagreed.

She brought up how Aang had reacted to seeing Gyatso’s skeleton in the Southern Air temple; how hurt he’d been, enough to nearly blow his friends off the mountain.

“I saw you get so upset that you weren’t even you anymore.” she told him in a quiet voice. “I’m not saying the Avatar state doesn’t have incredible- and helpful power, but you have to understand... for the people who love you, watching you be in that much rage and pain is really scary.”

But people were dying, day by day. He had to try it, he told her. If he had the power to save everyone and end the war, he had to try it; he owed it to the world he’d abandoned for 100 years. Even if it meant giving himself up.

Katara still disagreed.

General Fong learned that the Avatar state could be brought on by the loss of someone close to the Avatar. He’d threatened Katara’s life like it was nothing, smiling like he’d won some great victory, and even suggested a purposeful repeat of the incident. Sokka hit him very hard on the head.

And then there was the information Roku had imparted him with, leaving him all the more wary of it.

“I’m sorry, Katara.” he told her in a whisper. “I hope you never have to see me like that again.”

She held him tighter.

——

_ If you are killed in the Avatar state, the reincarnation cycle will be broken, and the Avatar will cease to exist. _

He left the fort with a new sense of caution.

——

Seeing Omashu with iron smokestacks spewing black fumes to the sky, with massive iron gates bearing the Fire Nation flag, with a massive statue of Firelord Ozai standing imperiously above the city was a slap to the face. The worst part was that so much of it was metal; not only as a sign of unwanted industry, but the earthbenders could only do so much to remove the constructs. Maybe that was why Bumi had decided to surrender. Aang’s one comfort upon leaving the city was that Bumi would be kept alive and relatively unharmed, and that he would wait for the best, and presumably safest, moment to strike back and retake the city. Until then, Aang had to find a new earthbending teacher.

The next day, as if fated, he was called to by a vast and mysterious swamp, a place a waterbender living there called “one big living organism”. Katara and Sokka had visions of people they lost, that they loved; their mother and Yue respectively. The person Aang saw was someone he hadn’t met. Following Huu’s logic, it was someone he would meet in the future. 

A few days later, he met Toph; an incredible earthbender his age that was about as opposite from him as she could get. She was tough, brash, and uncompromising. She refused to let anything or anyone get in the way of what she wanted, stubbornly facing everything head on, something Aang was very poor at. He’d almost lost her friendship when being chased by Azula; she’d blamed Appa as the reason they kept being followed- it didn’t matter if she was right or not, Appa was his companion- and he’d yelled at her, prompting her to leave the group. Until they cooled off. 

Earthbending was hard for him to pick up, as air was so intrinsic to his person, therefore Toph decided to bully him until he stood his ground against her. It was strange how well it worked. Aang realized, perhaps belatedly, she really was the best instructor he could have had; not just because of her skill, but because of how she pushed him. ‘Stand your ground, be stubborn, fight for the things you want and don’t let people take them from you. You yield to no one.’ She hammered ideas like those into his head day by day.

She’d become one of his best friends so quickly it was startling.

——

Sokka’s chosen mini vacation had led them into the Si Wong desert, and it was there they gained information that would give them an incredible edge against the Fire Nation. But someone out there, some higher power, decided they needed to give something in return.

Appa was taken. Appa was  _ stolen _ from him.

Toph claimed she was trying to stop the library from sinking, but that wasn’t enough. Sokka and Katara weren’t even shaken at the news that Appa was gone. The thing Aang treasured most from his old home was gone.

And it was not.  _ Fair _ .

He tried to get him back, flew as far and fast as he could manage. But there was nothing but sand for miles.

He loathed it. The sweltering heat, the endless stretch of the dunes, the prick of the dry air that made him feel as though he was burning, and no Appa to be found anywhere. He wanted the whole desert to disappear.

Hitting the sand was useless, but being powerless to help himself, powerless to help his best friend, he couldn’t do anything other than some equally futile gesture.

The buzzard wasps tried to take Momo away from him too.

He refused to lose anyone else. And how dare anything or anyone try to take from him.

The animal deserved to have its neck snapped. Who cared if he’d broken the single most important rule in Nomad philosophy? They were dead and Appa was gone. It didn’t matter anymore. 

He felt nothing as he heard its body hit the dunes with a resounding thud.

And he moved on.

The sandbender tried to deny he’d stolen Appa from him. Aang only offered some small amount of patience to the group because the leader angrily demanded to know what his son did to the bison.

Toph claimed the son put a muzzle on him, and Aang was tipped over the edge.

They’d traded him.  _ Traded _ . Like merchandise. Like he wasn’t anyone’s best friend or guardian or last piece of home. Like he wasn’t a lifelong companion whose relationship was sacred and personal.

He couldn’t see, couldn’t think. He just felt. He hurt, he was angry and he wanted everybody to know it. His heart burned and screamed, making him see the sky as red. He wanted them to lose something for a change. He had destroyed their sailers but that wasn’t near enough recompense. He’d already lost enough and then they saw fit to take his best friend from him, like he was supposed to be okay with it.

It  _ wasn’t fair. _

He felt the tug of an anchor at his arm, trying to pull him down to earth, though he didn’t realize he’d left the ground. It was Katara, a sad, exhausted look in her eyes.

_ For the people who love you, watching you be in that much rage and pain is really scary. _

She pulled him back down to earth, clutched him tight. He could feel the tears she cried along with him running down her face.

The sandstorm died down, along with the Avatar state.

——

Aang had almost lost himself.

——

He decided it would be better not to let his emotions show, to focus on getting to Ba Sing Se like the others wanted, but the moment he said so Katara started giving him that concerned look. And later on, so did Sokka and Suki.

He hated being worried over like that, as if he deserved it after the way he acted. Every time he got emotional like that, the Avatar state would activate and very much threaten to hurt the people nearby him. So he had to not get emotional. He hated the alternative more anyway. It was aggravating that they didn’t see it the same way.

He told Katara as much when they crossed through the Serpent’s Pass, and she argued that not feeling anything wasn’t any better. She wanted him to hope and to care.

She offered him a hug. He left without accepting it.

It was only when a new life was born on the other side of the pass that he realized how much he missed hoping and caring. That there was in fact a balance he could strike between his power and his emotions. He didn’t really know what that was yet, but the idea nonetheless inspired him.

It reminded him how much he loved his family, past and present. His lifelong companion. And his anchor.

——

After the battle on and against the giant drill, the next entire month was spent trying to locate Appa and trying to get in contact with the Earth King. Aang did his best to be patient, but many higher powers sought to actively restrain their efforts. Their attempt to see the Earth King at his party was met with the proclamation that they’d be constantly monitored by the Dai Li, and the threat that stepping out of line would cause them to lose the opportunity to find Appa. They were delayed and restricted repeatedly, until Aang eventually snapped at the poor Joo Dee who informed them they needed proper clearance to put up posters and the like. He didn’t feel remorseful about it, not after a whole month of waiting.

And then Jet wandered back into their lives, much to Katara’s extreme dislike.

Once Long Feng was long gone, all four of them threw themselves onto Appa, burying themselves in his fur, Sokka cheering loudly. Aang landed right on the bison’s forehead, clinging fiercely.

“I missed you, buddy.” he managed. Appa rumbled soothingly in reply.  He always kept him close from there onwards.

Though their relationship was complicated, Katara wept for Jet, for the loss of the person who hadn’t had the chance to truly be better. Aang did his best to comfort her and pulled her into a group hug.

——

The session with the Guru was good for him in more ways than one. Pathik, for the most part, only asked him to give up things that hurt him; his fear, his guilt, his shame. Pathik gave him a moment to grieve over the loss of his nation and remind himself of how much they had loved him, and how it hadn’t really left him. How there were still those who loved him in his life today, and who loved him as much as the Nomads ever had. The grief still lingered, but it ran down the river like a streak of color poured in, fading to a dull ache. The anchor stayed ever present in his mind, the memory of their first meeting strong and poignant.

The feeling of relief lasted until the last chakra.

“What?” Aang cried. “Why would I let go of Katara?! I... I-I love her!”

She was an anchor. She was a breaker against the waves, something that had kept him from destroying himself and other people. She had a passion he envied, and it carried her so far, so fast. She wasn’t very good at making fun, but when she had it her smile was incredible. She’d stuck it out through everything, even when she shouldn’t have.

She was... an anchor. Bringing him down to earth and fastening him to it.

When Pathik insisted it was the only way, he tried to reason with himself; he was still able to care about her, even love her. She just didn’t have to... ground him. 

Even if that was something he valued about her company the most.

“Okay. I’ll try.”

He did try. He pried himself away from his anchor, suddenly light and free, soaring away from the world. Standing on a walkway of lights, the kind one could sometimes see at the North Pole on a clear night, walking towards a manifestation of himself that was larger than life. He could feel the cosmic energy flowing through his being, swirling in the pools on the way down the creek. It expanded his consciousness to all the corners of the world, able to take it all in at once as the universe used him as a medium. Aang could see pretty much everything from where he was, bathed in starlight.

A scream startled him out of his trance and forced him to look upon Ba Sing Se. What he saw had him sprinting back out along the walkway, even if it vanished under his feet; Aang plummeted to the earth.

“Katara’s in danger!” he pulled himself away from the swirl, jumping to his feet and dashing down the roof. “I have to go!”

The Guru discouraged him, emergency in his voice. If he left now, choosing attachment and locking his chakra, he wouldn’t be able to enter the Avatar state at all.

Aang paused only briefly before leaving anyway.  _ Katara could die _ . his mind shrieked.  _ This isn’t about choosing attachment. This is about making sure someone I care about is okay. _

He could come back later.

——

Toph claimed Zuko’s uncle gave very good advice upon their meeting, thus Aang couldn’t help but bring up the concerns still fresh on his mind. He asked Iroh for his opinion; if power was more beneficial to a situation, was it worth choosing over an attachment to someone?

“If you just keep moving, you will come to a better place.” Iroh told him.

——

They were surrounded. They didn’t have a chance. They were dirty and ragged and bruised. Katara was still fighting, but she was obviously tired.

_ The only way is to let her go. _

It hurt. It hurt so deeply he felt like he’d been wounded, like his heart was about to bleed through his skin and fabric of his robes. But it was the only way.

“I’m sorry, Katara.”

There was an explosive, cracking sound of lightning, and his new found control over the Avatar state was ripped away from him too.

——

There was a blur before his eyes; visions of the spirit world, the physical world. A large tree being circled by a centipede and a dark kite with red markings, being caught up in its roots and screaming to be released. The days passed by in a flash, spots of sunlight hitting the earth like gems on a celestial calendar. Past Avatars being burned away, falling to earth from so high above, glimmering like shooting stars. Roku was among them, shouting something in a panic, his voice so clear but his words indiscernible. 

Aang’s back burned, bled, leaving an electrified red streak in the sky like a spill of ink. The Avatars violently twitched and jolted and crackled. His arrows peeled from his skin, shattering off and becoming stars in the sky behind him, leaving deep wounds in his body, going down to the bone. He burned in the atmosphere, cremating. He was a comet, just skimming the earth, threatening to crash down. He got closer, and closer, and closer. He was so close, all the Avatars were about to be incinerated and crushed under his failings; their collective looked like a giant white kite whose string had snapped, crashing to the ground, its blue markings flaking away, a teapot there to catch the remains. People below screamed in terror as everything began to burn.

The suffering was silenced as his vision was filled with water. Dark and deep, like the waves he’d been pulled under during the storm, but not near as turbulent. Still, there was an urgency in them; a need to douse his flame while also trying to push him to the surface. Much of the water evaporated to steam as he landed, but not enough to desiccate the ocean.

It lapped at his back, trying to pull him back down to the sky. Tried to catch his fall, cradle him. It rushed into the gaps where his tattoos had fled his body and reminded him they were there to begin with. He could only give in and limply flow along with the current; he never felt a need to resist anyway. An anchor wrapped its chain around his arm and it pulled him down, down into cooler depths. His head seared with a cold light and the flame was entirely put out. Down they descended, further and further until the anchor reached the surface, merging with the light from the depths and disappearing as he emerged with it, spitting up sea water and taking in air.

——

He woke to a dark, starless sky and Katara looking over him. She was crying, bruised and disheveled, but she looked happy; she was smiling like he’d never seen before. Aang did his best to smile back but his vision was already spotting out. He could feel the fur of his bison companion rush below his fingertips as they flew, could feel the wind brushing through Katara’s hair, the tear made wet spots on the back of his clothes. She held him close, buried him in her shoulder as sobs wracked her body, embracing so fiercely but so tenderly, carefully, as if he were a treasure made of thin glass she couldn’t bear to part with.

Aang wanted to ask what was wrong, why was she crying. But he had crashed and burned, and was so very tired.

——

The Avatar had lost the Earth Kingdom, and he wasn’t even awake to watch it fall.

——

He woke up sore, cringing, and in a world that thought he’d died.

The entire world thought he was dead and he seemed to be the only one who thought this was a bad thing. Sokka insisted he hide, not join the fight, not protect the people and things he cared about and it stung like a buzzard wasp.

Katara managed to get to the heart of the issue, almost. She didn’t think that he’d failed when he clearly had. She thought the invasion plan would somehow rectify the situation. She didn’t get that the Earth Kingdom had fallen under his watch and it was his fault. She didn’t get that he wanted to reclaim the honor he’d lost. She didn’t get that he didn’t want anyone else risking their lives because he was so  _ sick _ and  _ tired _ of giving and losing and sacrificing.

That’s why he left the ship; he was so adamant on refusing to accept his failure, and he didn’t want anyone else in harm's way. He knew the others would be angry, call him stupid and selfish, and maybe he was. But was selfishness really so bad? Why should he be forced to give even more than he already has? Why can’t he be allowed to keep things safe and close to his heart?

At least the spirits- Roku and Yue respectively- did not blame him. Said he hadn’t failed yet; there was still a chance.

The moon raised the waves, pushed him all the way to the Fire Nation, to the crescent shaped island. The ruins of the temple were long since burned in the rivers of the volcano, and the only thing of note was the waves washing up around him as he slept there, until his family came.

Aang’s glider was irreparably broken in the storm. He said it was okay, but that was a lie he knew Toph decided not to call him out on. It was disposed of in the small streams of lava nearby, burning away what was left.

——

The young nomad rubbed at his tattoos once more before covering them up with Fire Nation clothing.  _ It’s temporary, _ he told himself.

——

Even in the Fire Nation, there were things that were incredibly easy to give. Painless things that made lives better or more joyful. Help was the easiest, most of the time. 

Aang taught the kids at the Fire Nation about dances, about their own past culture. He helped Katara with destroying a factory and driving back the army that was terrorizing the nearby river village. He helped Toph get more money to help them out, though he eventually abstained once her methods became more questionable. He did his best to give his support to Katara after Hama twisted the perceived image of her heritage into something cruel.

Help was hard to accept though. It was so hard he stayed sleepless for several days leading up to the invasion. But he did end up accepting it, and he was all the better. 

Aang remembered when he’d angrily told Katara he hated the invasion plan, and he still felt that way to a degree. But it would be different; he would be with the invasion force, would be able to protect and help them. The Firelord would be helpless and imprisoning him would bring the war to a quick end.

There was no accepting failure. Not tomorrow.

——

The Firelord wasn’t at the palace, and they couldn’t find him in the mountain bunker. The airships destroyed the submarines and everyone told him to leave, to regroup, to leave behind nearly everyone that had helped them. They told them he needed to fail, and he had to accept it.

It wasn’t fair. Not to him, but to everyone else there. They didn’t deserve all the times he’d failed them.

The Avatar vowed to make it up to them. He  _ had _ to make it up to them.

——

Accepting Zuko was hard. Incredibly so. Especially after he admitted sending an assassin after them. After hearing Katara claim she’d once trusted him, only for him to join Azula in conquering Ba Sing Se. After burning Toph. Toph insisted it was an accident on his part, but until hearing Zuko apologize for it, her attempts to defend him did nothing to change his mind.

On the other hand, Appa liked him. Appa was usually a very good judge of character, and Toph claimed he was sincere in everything he said. And most importantly, he’d hurt people as well; but he was trying his utmost to make up for it. He fully knew about fire’s capacity to hurt and consume. But unlike Aang, he wasn’t hesitant to use it; he embraced it, and only strived to make up for his mistakes. It was something Aang needed to learn from.

In the end, after getting everyone’s approval, he accepted Zuko into the group.

Zuko’s resulting tutelage ended up being even more than he could have asked for. Though his fear of hurting others with fire still lingered, the field trip to meet with the Sun Warriors and the dragon masters as a result, ended up proving invaluable as he learned that fire wasn’t inherently dangerous, that it could be controlled. It was a spark for life, and it was energy. He always tried to keep that in mind. 

Zuko also taught him to assert his sense of willpower and initiative, which was still challenging even with Toph’s teachings still being drilled into his head. He could stand his ground, he could adapt to situations, but it remained difficult for him to actually go after the things he desired in an active manner. He just wasn’t... ferocious the way Zuko was, as much as he wished he could be. Zuko insisted that he had to, if he wanted to firebend proper, so he had to work on it no matter what.

Zuko also helped Sokka and Katara with his sense of taking initiative. Sokka’s guilt of not being able to protect his dad was greatly lessened when the prince helped him orchestrate a prison break. And although it seemed more like he was egging Katara to kill someone, it ended up helping her. Facing the man who killed her mother helped her. Although Aang didn’t say it out loud, he had been incredibly afraid that Katara would lose herself.

He didn’t want to know what kind of person she would become if she’d gone through with it. She claimed she couldn’t forgive the man who killed her mother, but that was fine; he was proud of her regardless. She’d managed to forgive Zuko, and maybe even forgive herself, so she could finally start closing the wound that festered.

“You were right about what Katara needed.” Zuko told him privately. “Violence wasn’t the answer.”

Aang couldn’t keep the soft smile off his face as he watched Katara leave the dock. “It never is.”

Zuko turned to him with a stern expression on his face. “Then I have a question for you: what are you going to do when you face my father?”

——

What  _ was _ he going to do?

——

He had to give up or lose everything. 

Sokka claimed the universe would forgive him... it was likely true, but would he forgive himself? 

Could he?

If an airbender ever killed a person, no matter what the circumstances were, they were judged for the rest of their lives. It was the most important part of their rules and beliefs, something a great many aspects of their life centered around. Where the world was concerned, Ozai was better off dead; he knew this, but he had still been given life. All life was sacred, even the worst, most despicable instances of it.

He remembered the buzzard wasp in the desert, and how he hadn’t cared about anything else at the time. It was the time in his life when he’d felt the lowest. He was sure he had killed something or someone in the Avatar state, and it haunted him.

If he lost this last thing... the last of the things he had that made him an airbender... the last part of himself that he clung desperately onto, after he’d resolved not to lose anything else...

He would consider the Air Nomads to truly be dead. Crashed, burned, ashen remains scattered on whatever wind decided to grace the world that day.

He snapped at his friends who seemed to think this shouldn’t be an issue for him. And yet they had no ideas to offer, despite Katara’s insistence that they did understand, that they were trying to help.

“Well, when you figure out a way to defeat the Firelord without taking his life, I’d love to hear it!” he shouted before he stormed off.

Zuko was just barely audible by the time Aang had left the courtyard, saying he needed to figure it out for himself. Aang wondered if that was best.

Aang was never going to fall asleep after meditation ever again. If all repeated occurrences resulted in him waking on the shore of a forested island in the middle of nowhere, then it was something he’d rather avoid.

He could connect with the spirits of other Avatars here, and as his dilemma weighed heavier on his shoulders by the second, he barely questioned the method in which they were able to manifest before him.

Roku lamented about a lack of decisiveness, encouraged Aang not to follow his example. Kyoshi spoke of justice in an absolute sense, the only thing that would beget peace. Kuruk mourned his lost love, admonishing the unspoken possibility of choosing to ultimately ignore the issue.

But, Yangchen. Yangchen he was hoping would understand. Aang wasn’t trying to avoid anything; he knew he had to stand up to the Firelord, knew that he needed to be brought to justice. He’d made the hard decision to confront him before the day of Black Sun. However, during that time Ozai would have had little power to fight back, and killing him would not have been necessary; Aang could have easily gotten away with detaining him.

Yangchen understood all of this, empathized with it even. When she agreed that all life was to be considered sacred, she said it with such conviction and such sadness, Aang was led to believe she’d violated her own vows in the past as well. Teachings and vows they’d both taken, values they both had, lives they’d shared, and the first airbender Aang had spoken with in three seasons; she claimed that despite their upbringing, they were required to go against it.

Because they were the Avatar.

“Selfless duty calls you to sacrifice your own spiritual needs,” her voice echoed into the forest. “and do whatever it takes to protect the world.”

Aang felt numb. He didn’t have a choice.

Overcome with so many emotions- anger, fear, hurt, panic, despair- he tried and failed to fall asleep for a long time. But the waves soon lulled him into slumber with their sound.

When Aang awoke the next morning, the sound of the waves had changed, and there were mountains on the horizon; he reflected on how strange that was, especially when they started to grow in size. A quick look from the topmost part of the island confirmed the guess he’d made.

The island was moving, and moving quickly, towards the odd rock formations bordering the coast in the Earth Kingdom. Diving down to see exactly how such a thing was possible seemed like the best idea.

It revealed itself to be an animal, not an island; a spiritually important animal long since lost to time, but still revered in its own right for what value it once held in both the physical and spiritual world. Being on its back was akin to Aang’s meditation in the North Pole, a place consecrated by both people and individual status. It towered over him, its gaze sent thrums of energy through his bones, rooting him to the spot.

“A lionturtle.” Aang said in reverent awe.

He bowed to it. And begged its help. Pleaded his case to a seemingly impassive creature, blinking at him slowly. Tried to express just how much killing another person would change who he was at his core.

“I don’t know if I can do it.” he confessed. He’d never felt so small.

_ The true mind can weather all the lies and illusions without being lost. _ the being told him in reply.

_ The true heart can touch the poison of hatred without being harmed _ . 

Was it talking about him? Was this a lecture? Aang had no idea. Did he even fulfill these... requirements?

It reached two claws out toward him, gently and slowly.  _ Since beginningless time, darkness thrives in the void, but always yields to purifying light. _

The claws tapped gently to his chest and the center of his forehead, and he felt. He couldn’t specify what, but he knew he’d been given something: an incredible gift.

_ In the era before the Avatar _ , the lionturtle said.  _ we bent not the elements, but the energy within ourselves. _

And his own energy still burned so bright.

——

Firelord Ozai seemed all too eager to fight him after his airship had crashed. He abandoned the craft, leaving the crew to whatever injury they would suffer in the aftermath, and apparently reveled in the idea he had the chance to kill a child.

He claimed the universe delivered Aang to him as an act of providence. Like his defeat was a given and his very presence in front of the Firelord was a sign the war was won.

Aang gave a last ditch attempt to reason with him, to convince him to stop fighting, but the boy quickly gave up on the idea upon hearing the man’s response. There was no talking to him. Not that he hadn’t known as much before, but it was worth a shot.

He had the perfect opportunity. With the technique taught by the Firelord’s own son, ready to use his own power against him. Ozai looked surprised. And scared.

He couldn’t do it.

It cost him.

The laughter was piercing, a cackle of sheer sadistic euphoria that Aang felt was being breathed right into his ear, like the barrier between them meant nothing. He curled in tighter, praying to every spirit he knew that he could hold long enough to stall out the comet. It was a last ditch hope.

“You’re weak! Just like the rest of your people!”

No...

“They did not deserve to live in this world-“

No.

“In my world!”

No!

“Prepare to join them!”

No!!

“Prepare to die!”

NO!!!

He would not yield. He would not let his life be taken. He deserved to live.

It was so hot. Aang wondered how close his flesh was to burning.

There would be no ocean to catch him this time.

The Avatar state was ever always brought on in times of emotional distress or violence. It only seemed fitting that the same apply here. Blunt force had blocked his chakra, and so blunt force opened it again.

Electricity ripped through him again, and the physical block was gone. The cosmic energy swirled its way down the river and into the pools.

The Firelord clearly saw him and all he stood for as something akin to a joke. The person who’d hurt and taken from all his friends and himself was smiling and laughing, calling the Air Nomads weak, calling Aang weak.

The chorus started up, louder and more haunting than ever, but now Aang's voice was an audible addition to the ensemble.

Ozai would regret it.

The tide of battle turned drastically. Ozai could barely fight back, now being put completely on the defensive. He could no longer take cheap shots, could no longer overpower the Avatar, and could only run from the force of nature barreling through solid rock to apprehend him. It was only a matter of time before he was caught, doused in water and slammed onto one of many pillars, restrained.

“ _ Firelord Ozai, you and your forefathers have devastated the balance of this world.”  _ the Avatar declared. The chorus twisted and warped in the wind, the young boy’s voice lost among the many. “ _ And now, you shall pay the ultimate price!” _

Aang still couldn’t do it.

Even with his control, his power, his determination, his anger, he still couldn’t. After all that Ozai had done, his family had done, and what he’d done to his family, he still couldn’t.

It was the anniversary of the Air Nomad’s genocide and he  _ couldn’t do it. _

“No.” Aang said to the monster behind him. “I’m not gonna end it like this.”

He couldn’t end it like that. He would not yield.

“Even with all the power in the world,” Ozai snarled. “You are still weak.”

People had said similar things about his blind earthbending teacher.

Ozai was incredibly surprised when Aang restrained him with his back turned.

To bend another’s energy, his own spirit had to be unbendable. Or he would be corrupted and destroyed.

He was not weak. The Air Nomads were not weak. The world did its damndest to wipe every single one of them out. Ozai was doing his damndest to finish what his grandfather had started.

But he would not yield.

Ozai’s own spirit was so strong, so fierce and unrelenting, uncaring what it tore apart as it lashed out. It threatened to burn him. To turn him into a comet that skimmed across the heavens.

But he would not yield.

The world had gone on without him and his nation for so long. The status quo had changed, the Air Nomads disappearing into the annals of history. Becoming legends, myths- called things like ‘airwalkers’, believed to have a military of all things. Rewritten and revised. Cremated, crashed to the earth in flames, ashes tossed to the wind.

He refused to yield.

He did not yield.

The pair went limp when Aang succeeded, but where Ozai only attempted to get up, weakly trying to fight once more, Aang stood tall. His skin smoldered, stung in the faint breeze that moved in due to the sheer amount of fire and heat, but his own burning was minimal. Energy crackled through his chakras and he stood tall, alive.

Ozai grounded out a question at him, still drained and helpless on the ground. “What... What did you do to me?”

“I took away your firebending.” Aang stated. But it was more than that, and they both knew it. It was his power, his authority, his weapon. His rule. “You can’t use it to hurt or threaten anyone else ever again.” 

There was no changing what had happened to Zuko, to Azula, to the Water Tribes, to Katara and Sokka, to the colonized towns and cities like Omashu, to the war prisoners, to Ba Sing Se, and to the airbenders. But this man would never be the cause of such strife ever again.

Aang rarely ever took things from people; he was so used to giving and accepting. But he was sure taking this was right.

He felt like himself. He felt balanced, for the first time in the longest while.

Aang entered the Avatar state with so much ease now, no fear or violence to induce it. The light and knowledge of all the other Avatars coursed through him, but there was nothing to influence his choice now, no whispers in his head, no echoes of anyone else’s song. He raised the tide of the ocean nearby, dark and gentle, lapping at the burn upon the land and healing all that it could in its depths, before retreating and exposing the wound to the air once more.

The comet left, disappearing over the horizon, the angry red sky fading to a navy blue filled with stars.

——

Zuko’s coronation was quite the affair. He’d insisted on inviting representatives from all the nations, and had even asked Aang to stand at his side during the ceremony. Aang had dressed in the traditional garb of his people, a string of prayer beads around his neck. It was much like Gyatso’s, but just different enough to make it his. 

As the Nomads’ sole representative, Zuko insisted he stand with him; Aang didn’t even have to say anything if he didn’t want to. Aang could only marvel that he’d managed to keep him as a friend through all that had happened after Zuko became his teacher. Zuko claimed they would rebuild the world together, and Aang believed it wholeheartedly.

“Please,” Zuko told the crowd who cheered for him. “the real hero is the Avatar.”

Aang walked out to meet the cheers of the crowd with a smile on his face. He didn’t really feel like a hero, not as much as he should have, but he did feel like himself and that was something he was far more proud of.

——

He had stopped rubbing at his tattoos since then, now tracing them over lightly instead, secure in knowing they would never fade.

——

They rejoined at Iroh’s tea shop some time after the ceremony. Sokka’s artistic inspiration struck thus provoking him to complain when Zuko moved, claiming he had to ‘capture the moment’. It was a good moment to capture, they all would agree. Perhaps Sokka’s art skills would catch up with his sentiments one day.

Aang looked out at all his friends criticizing their appearance in Sokka’s artwork- Mai was a newfound one, but Zuko treasured her company so she fit in easily- thanking every higher power that he hadn’t lost any of them. His interactions with Iroh had been brief, but the insight he’d gotten from him proved invaluable. He still had Appa, he still had Momo. And he still had himself.

He’d managed to gain this particular moment with all of them as well. He could only hope there would be more like it in the future.

Moments like these were something he’d be able to keep.

The anchor met him on the terrace, and as much as he wanted to thank her for always taking him up to the surface, he was sure she wouldn’t understand what he was talking about. But that was okay.

Because he was allowed to keep this moment with her, too.

**Author's Note:**

> me: i wanna write a smallish prosey thing about aangs character arc cause i love him! shouldn’t take more than 2k words maybe?  
> fic: is 10k+ words long  
> me: *tim allen noises*
> 
> hey this is my first thing ive written on here! im not very good at prose and this is honestly more like a gussied up wikipedia entry but i wanted to write something about one (1) boy near and dear to my heart and i had fun with it anyway. i hope you enjoyed reading it! thank you! ^^


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